My grandfather was a butcher and as far back as I can remember everything we butchered was hung by the hamstrings. Naturally now that I’m doing my own, hanging by the hamstrings just how it’s done. My hunting buddy however has always hung deer by the neck.
My question is, how do you guys hang yours and why? I’m guessing its all personal preference but I’d like to how you do it.
We have always hung ours by the neck. I know of a few others that do so the other way. Not really sure if one way is better than the other – Just what you are use to.
We always hung by the neck until the last couple years when we implemented the electric hoist.
by the hammies, any lingering blood runs to the head and not the meat, and the deer is in position to skin.
neck, the first few cuts during the skinning process (top or bottom) always have lots of hair flying around by the time you roll it down from the top your mostly pulling the hide and have less hair on the best cuts of meat.
ford vs chevy anyone 
obvously both ways work well.
We hang them by the neck immediately after gutting. This let’s the juices run out. When it’s time to skin we hang them by the hamstrings. It seems like less Hair on the meat. 
We hang head down. First cuts are made with the deer on the floor. I don’t know if it helps but I always make every cut I can from the meat side of the hide. Seems to help with hair. Then hoist and finish. I cape almost every buck even if I’m not mounting it. Taxidermist is always willing to trade for cash, euro mounts, tanning my furbearers, etc. I have helped friends do it both ways. Golf ball trick works better hanging them from the head.
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My grandfather was a butcher and as far back as I can remember everything we butchered was hung by the hamstrings. Naturally now that I’m doing my own, hanging by the hamstrings just how it’s done. My hunting buddy however has always hung deer by the neck.
My question is, how do you guys hang yours and why? I’m guessing its all personal preference but I’d like to how you do it.
Never hang by the neck. If for no other reason that when you skin a deer by the neck it is much harder and you get a ton of hair in/on the deer.
Head down, from hammies. Cause thats how you skin…. 
Growing up we always hung all our deer by the neck, but then all our deer were brought into a meat locker for processing. Over the last 8-10 years we have been doing all our own and I end up doing most of it as my brother and friend have kids and all. I prefer to hang them from the hamstrings as we also utilize the benefit of caping deer for our taxidermist and I find it easier (maybe even less damaging to the hair?) to do this when they are facing downward.
I see pictures of deer hanging by the neck and I’ve wondered what the benefits are to that. We’ve always hung them by the hamstrings.
Head down. This allows the deer to cool quicker. The quicker you can cool the meat and the internal cavity of the deer the better off you will be. This is what I was taught.
I’ve always hung by the neck, for no other reason than its easy to slap a noose around it, and im lazy.
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I’ve always hung by the neck, for no other reason than its easy to slap a noose around it, and im lazy.
x2. We skin and quarter them out while hanging from the neck with a noose and an old 600 ford tractor and loader. Maybe we should use a farmall tractor 
This is like a chevy/ford/dodge/strikemaster/jiffy/Marcum/vexilar discusstion 
There is no right or wrong way, just a preference.
Heads down for our group. It lets the remaining blood and lymphatic fluids drain out of the hams, doesn’t stretch the cape if its a buck headed to the taxidermist and it keeps the dogs and cats from lunching on the exposed meat on the hams, as we don’t have a real high ceiling in my garage, so the head or the back legs are darn close to the floor when fully hoisted.
We were tougt to hang from the back legs since that is the best meat area. However I now prefer to skin from the neck down so I end up reversing the deer when I butcher to do so.
hang them by the back leg tendons. Ive never seen a meat locker hang them by the head and was told by a couple butchers the blood drains better when hung by the back legs. Also if you hang them by the head you have to cut around the neck and get hair all over. And as someone else said cause that’s how you skin an animal. I used to work for a fur buyer as a skinner and you always started skinning at the back of the animal. You can do it either way but I believe it’s better for the meat and just plain easier to skin and process a deer hanging by the back tendons.
Head down. This allows the deer to cool quicker. The quicker you can cool the meat and the internal cavity of the deer the better off you will be. This is what I was taught.
I’ve always hung by the neck, for no other reason than its easy to slap a noose around it, and im lazy.
Quote:
I’ve always hung by the neck, for no other reason than its easy to slap a noose around it, and im lazy.
x2. We skin and quarter them out while hanging from the neck with a noose and an old 600 ford tractor and loader. Maybe we should use a farmall tractor
This is like a chevy/ford/dodge/strikemaster/jiffy/Marcum/vexilar discusstion There is no right or wrong way, just a preference.
Heads down for our group. It lets the remaining blood and lymphatic fluids drain out of the hams, doesn’t stretch the cape if its a buck headed to the taxidermist and it keeps the dogs and cats from lunching on the exposed meat on the hams, as we don’t have a real high ceiling in my garage, so the head or the back legs are darn close to the floor when fully hoisted.
We were tougt to hang from the back legs since that is the best meat area. However I now prefer to skin from the neck down so I end up reversing the deer when I butcher to do so.
hang them by the back leg tendons. Ive never seen a meat locker hang them by the head and was told by a couple butchers the blood drains better when hung by the back legs. Also if you hang them by the head you have to cut around the neck and get hair all over. And as someone else said cause that’s how you skin an animal. I used to work for a fur buyer as a skinner and you always started skinning at the back of the animal. You can do it either way but I believe it’s better for the meat and just plain easier to skin and process a deer hanging by the back tendons.
I cringe every time I see a deer getting the ol’ west style hanging from the neck. I think it’s disgusting. So,, i’m a hang from the back knees kinda guy.
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